Woman accused in Lakewood mother’s killing pleads not guilty

LAKEWOOD >> A woman accused of killing her mother at her Lakewood apartment pleaded not guilty to one count of murder Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Angie Diamond, 32, was arrested on May 28 at her home in Los Angeles, according to a county Sheriff’s Department statement.

The felony complaint includes special allegations that Diamond used deadly weapons — a hammer and knife — to kill her mother, Margaret Rion, 57.

The charging document also includes a 2013 felony conviction in Los Angeles County for making criminal threats, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Diamond reportedly told Sheriff’s Lakewood station homicide detectives she killed her mother on May 25 following a fight in Rion’s apartment in the 4100 block of Maybank Avenue in Lakewood.

Rion’s body was found by relatives two days later. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Diamond is currently being held on $1.14 million bail.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for June 6 for a pre-preliminary hearing in Department J of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk. If convicted as charged, she faces a maximum sentence of 35 years to life in state prison.

Rion’s death is the first homicide in Lakewood this year, said Lt. Daniel Beringer of the Sheriff’s Lakewood Station. There was one homicide in the city in 2013.

Anyone with information about this incident is urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.

Information can be provided anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or texting TIPLA plus the tip to CRIMES (274637) or by using the lacrimestoppers.org website.